Warm hands grasped her own, firm as they helped her to her feet, shaking her head as she did so. "It was not the speed, so much . . ." Her own words halted. As the sound of shuffling behind them caused her to turn her head, despite her inability to see. She could tell something was there. Something was coming. The damp leaves of the forest floor, brushed aside as what she could only imagine was one of the hands headed their way.

"Are you certain that I won't be a burden?" She asked, not the least bit concerned with propriety and more worried about the practicality of him carrying her weight. He couldn't do so forever and it would possibly slow them down in the long run. However the sound of the creature, the hand, getting closer she complied with the request.

"If you get lower, it will be easier." She suggested as her hand moved to his shoulder, so she could climb onto his back. Her arms wrapping around his neck and legs around his waist doing her best to not choke him in the process.
"I deeply apologize that this is necessary." She said into his ear.
 
Hawkflesh was the sorry one.
He was sorry he didn't move fast enough to be clear of this place and doubly so that it grabbed another victim.
Sorry he made her fall and sorry she was any part of his mostly miserable existence.
"I'm certain. Just hold on."

Though he was slightly of frame he was by no means weak and with a tut of his lips as he hoisted her up onto himself a little higher than she rested, then stood.
The cacophony of her biology echoed through him, deep into his bones it drummed its rhythm. A counter to his own. It took a second to block it, all the sensory noise of her breathing so close to his acute ears and focus on his other senses. When he came back to himself the hand was almost upon them, wretched and sickly looking as it inched closer.
"Gods below!"
He exclaimed and turned on his heels to jog away. He could not go as fast as he might but he could go consistently and for longer than his skinny body would have you believe.

They were coming now, more of them. The dead grey forest came alive with hideous crawlings as by whatever evil compelled the hands into motion worked it's wickedness now to close the trap he'd seen close time and again before.

They were everywhere and it gave his feet speed. A quick burst to escape as trees past and darkness persisted.
Not even night was so grim as this endlessness.
"Still with me?"
He asked, hoping to not shake loose his passenger as his arms, looping around her legs to provide a seat of sorts, hoisted her up again mid-step.

@Euphemia Martell
 
The jolt of his running wasn't really all that comfortable. Way worse than riding a horse, not that she was comparing him to a horse really. Just the movements of one. She was sure if she held on tighter that it might not be so bad, but she really didn't want to accidently choke him as he ran. He felt him shift her weight a little. Settling it in a way that was better for him.

"Yes. Still here." The words soft in his ear. As he ran, she did her best to listen. Yet the being so close, the breathing was loud by comparison to the sound of the creatures chasing them. Did the things move swiftly? She wasn't sure. She wasn't sure if it was the same beasts or different ones as they moved through the dead leaves of the forest. Brushing about as they did. It was a strange sound. Much different from the beasts of the forest. Those that went about on four legs, the gait strange sounding on what she could imagine was five legs, or perhaps five giant fingers.

"Is there not another way? Something to stop them other than running?" She half asked aloud. He was focused on their escape and she really shouldn't interrupt him by adding conversation, but there had to be more to it than just finding an exit. Finding the escape.
 
"You know,"

He was starting to get a bit tired.
"I never stuck around long enough to find out. I just run from them and that's worked so far."

*Not for everyone!* A self hating part of himself added.
Hawkflesh shook the thought from his head, shook the memory of coloured cloaks flying into the nothing and never coming back.

Then, a miracle, a blessed thing came to his nose, the smell of air, fresh air, not the mildewy rot of the forest floor.
"We're close, hold on."

He could just about see it. He forgot the hands, forgot the tired creeping into his limbs and the frustrated gasps of his own lungs. He headed for it, sure as sunlight they would bet out but he didn't quite make it.

From the rot below one of the hands had caught him, by his boot ankle and sent him tripping forward, dropping his passenger.
He barely had a chance to focus his eyes when the tug of the foul thing yanked him hard back and up.
"NO, NOOOO!"


He could not reach his sword only a root on the ground within reach kept him from being dragged into the air and away to whatever it was he failed to fathom.
Euphemia was only feet away and a bit beyond was the phantom treeline, maybe only a few dozen metres. The relentless pull of the hand made his fingers feel weak even as both his own hands held firm as he could make them to the root.
The others were still a bit behind them advancing in their unsteady persistence that made you think they were slower than they actually were.

*Don't call out to her!*
He tried to command himself.
"Euphemia..."

Even as he cursed himself his voice was calm.

"They've got me, the exit, it's right there, just head away from my voice and you'll get out."
Again he faced dying and the familiar zen of knowing brought its own odd sense of clarity. As long as Euphemia got out then maybe it would not be so bad. He just had to hold on until she left.


@Euphemia Martell
 
Close to what she didn't know. Though the air seemed to change about them. A fresh breeze that caressed her skin. Only to find herself being thrown from Hawkflesh's back, rolling against the ground until her back slammed against the heavy wood of a tree trunk eliciting a pained cry from her lips.

The knight slowly pushed herself to her hands and knees, a sharp pain radiating down her back. She probably shouldn't be moving as she was, but she knew she couldn't afford to just remain still. Hawkflesh's cry spurred her to get up. His voice came again from somewhere in front of her as she pushed herself to her feet, hands on her knees as she forced her back to straighten as it screamed at her.

He surely didn't think that she'd leave him did he? Well she'd hoped for an opportunity to try her sight again. It was now or never. Closing her eyes, she drew on the tiniest bit of shroud for her sight. Keeping her eyes narrowed, she peeked open. It was still bright, burning, but she could make out some differences. Enough to see shapes, outlines. There hanging on by his hands on a root was her companion. At his ankle, what looked like a giant hand, pulling him.

"Don't move." She said in warning. It was hard enough to focus on the spell enough to see, but she'd have to aim, drop the sight, and then conjure a sword again. Just the slightest change, could mean she would miss and hit him instead. She moved her hand to point at the hand that held Hawkflesh, giving herself the line, keeping it from shaking by placing her other hand against her elbow.

Breath in, release the sight, everything going dark in an instant, a shocking contrast to the brightness of her shroud sight.

Breath out, conjure a dagger as before and launching it along the path of her hand. The metal zipping through the air. She could only hope that it found it's target.
 
"What? No wait, STOP!"


By the time he said the last word the magical blade was already singing through the air at him, well, towards him. Closing his eyes he waited to the sharp pain that would come with a piercing leg wound but he only felt a sharp burn on his ankle an then he fell, freed from the hands grasp he hit the ground in a surprised and relieved huff as the air got knocked from his body.

"Fuck, I thought, you were blind."

His words were strained, almost whispered as he began to collect his body into a stand only to wince on his leg as he saw that the shot had been accurate enough to hit the hand and send it flying but also had grazed him.
There was no time, the rustling was getting louder behind him and he did not wish to look back when they were so close.
Limping up to Euphemia in a hurry he gently but persistently coaxed her around to start marching out as quickly as they might manage.
"Thank you now lets be rid of this place. Right this way, come on."


Again he felt like he was dragging her with his haste but they almost had him and he was thrice damned if he was going to let them do it again.

Every step felt worse than the last, he'd need to take care of it later though, priorities, he could be a cripple all his days if he never had to see this wretched place again.

Behind them, the hands were gaining again, their frantic fingers giving them surprising speed in short erratic bursts.

@Euphemia Martell
 
She didn't have time to explain. Didn't have time to help him understand as she felt a hand at her back, another grasping her arm as he nearly dragged her in the opposite direction. She could feel the limp in his step. "I didn't mean to hit you." She offered in apology as she followed his direction. Though she pulled back slightly at his next words, though her steps did not stop.

"You mean to leave?" The words almost seemed ridiculous even as she asked.

Effie knew he was more experienced with this place than her, but at the same time. Leaving it, escaping was not solving the problem. It sounded like he'd found himself here on more than one occasion. The haunted forest continuously pulling him back in. Every time he'd managed to escape, but he almost hadn't this time. She recognized that this was more than likely due to her own hinderance, but even still running away clearly wasn't solving the ultimate problem.

"There has to be a way to end this place. If it's made so heavily of shroud, it has to be conjured or created. Which means there is equally a way to destroy it." The smell of fresh air grew stronger as they walked briskly in the direction of what she assumed was the escape. "We can't just leave, not when it could draw someone else in. Not when it puts others at risk by letting it exist." She had no idea on how to stop it. No idea on where to even look. She didn't even know if the magically created and thrown daggers had destroyed the hands or if they had only been hindered. Could they even be killed?​
 
"It's fine!"
Hawkflesh winced, sounding more angry than he felt but Euphemia's topic change and suggestion did not help his frayed mood.
The very notion of staying any longer than was absolutely necessary seemed unbearable.

"Believe me I am looking."
He was huffing now, out of breath but still moving, unwilling to let the sounds behind him catch u despite the new hurt in his lungs.
"I even looked for those, Knights of whatever and nearly got eaten by a dragon, can you believe that? A plowing dragon!"
He huffed again and fought the urge to look behind and see the pursuit of the hands, a small horde of scrambling shapes bounding after them.

"Don't worry, I plan on going far away from anyone this place can harm while I deal with it, AGH!"
The previous step was uneven and sent a shooting pain up his leg into his pelvis and it seemed to reach for his heart.
"YES, we can just leave and we certainly will!"

@Euphemia Martell
 
She felt frustration rising at his willingness to just run away, to leave the danger for someone else. That she almost missed the mention of the Knights and a dragon. He had to be talking about the Knights of Anatheaum and Petra's dragon. Effie didn't have a chance to say that she knew who he was talking about or that knowing someone or being away from people didn't seem to be enough of a deterrent to keep people safe from this trap.

At hearing the cry in pain, she stopped her protest. The injury clearly worse than she'd gathered from the limp. Instead, she stepped closer, slipping her shoulder under him to help support his weigh. One arm going around his waist. "Here. Just ... tell me if I need to avoid anything." She hoped this didn't just slow them down, but the ground seemed to be getting smoother as they walked toward the fresh air. It be easy enough to make it to freedom. At least she hoped.​
 
It was welcome help and Hawkflesh did lean his lanky frame on Euphemia though it pained him to do so to a blind person. Together they limped along in unison as a strange compact merging of bodies.
"It's not far now."
The rotten leaves below gave way to grass as behind them the rustling began to fade signaling their crossing the threshold. Just as he was feeling hopeful Hawkflesh found himself falling back as if his legs had been taken out from under him and yet the sudden sense of vertigo made him feel vulnerable and he felt the wind leaves his lungs as he hit the cold earth beneath him. The same earth he fell asleep on the night before.

Euphemia was gone, the forest was gone and so were the hands but the pain in his leg remained.

Slowly he rolled over and lay on his side gasping to try and get his breath back. Eyes closed as he focused on the relief and wished away the pain in his ankle.
He would need to keep moving soon but before he could bring himself to contemplate it Hawkflesh wondered what he often wondered when he dragged someone out of there. If they were alive, if they actually got out.
It seemed a desperate hope that they might be dropped back to their place of origin.

Eventually he roused himself and hobbled away from the Lakeshore, nothing left to do but keep moving and try to outrun the forest for another day.

@Euphemia Martell
 
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